Tesla has mysteriously pulled the Mannequin Y All-Wheel Drive (AWD) from its web site within the US. The Mannequin Y AWD within the US was the variant constructed at Giga Texas and the one one that includes Tesla’s 4680 battery cells.
The Mannequin Y AWD was first launched again in April 2022 with the opening of Giga Texas. This explicit variant of the Mannequin Y was the primary to incorporate Tesla’s subsequent era 4680 battery cells inside a structural battery pack. Manufacturing was sluggish at first nonetheless as Giga Texas ramped manufacturing of the battery cells, with it proving to be sufficient of a constraint that quickly after the manufacturing unit opened Tesla added the Lengthy Vary variant with 2170 cells to the manufacturing unit’s manufacturing strains.
Manufacturing continued to be sluggish sufficient that Tesla didn’t truly add the Mannequin Y AWD to its Design Studio to permit prospects to order till a yr later in April 2023, with the earlier choices solely being accessible on present stock. It has additionally by no means been accessible to Canadian prospects.
Nonetheless simply 5 months after it was added the net configurator, it has been eliminated. Now the one Mannequin Y variants nonetheless accessible for buy within the US are the Lengthy Vary AWD and the Efficiency. (h/t: @SawyerMerritt)
The final listing value of the Mannequin Y AWD earlier than it was eliminated was US$47,740.
Whereas it’s not accessible to customized order, there are nonetheless lots of of Mannequin Y AWDs accessible on the prevailing stock part of Tesla’s web site.
Credit score: Tesla
Tesla has after all been silent on why the Mannequin Y AWD has been faraway from the configurator, leaving followers to invest on why it’s not accessible. Some thought it could possibly be that Tesla is desirous to put aside all 4680 manufacturing for the Cybertruck, though we’re not so certain for at the least a few causes. The primary is that again in July Tesla’s senior VP for powertrain and power engineering Drew Baglino stated the Cybertruck can be launch with a brand new model of the 4680 battery that has round a ten% increased power density. Based mostly on this remark it seems that Tesla will not be going to be utilizing the identical 4680 cell it at present makes use of within the Mannequin Y as it’ll within the Cybertruck.
One more reason is that the Cybertruck hasn’t formally entered sequence manufacturing but. Even when the Mannequin Y AWD and the Cybertruck had been to make use of the identical 4680 cell, Cybertruck manufacturing ranges might be low sufficient by means of the top of 2023 that it seemingly wouldn’t considerably impact what is required for the Mannequin Y, particularly ranges excessive sufficient for Tesla to drag the electrical SUV altogether.
It’s value noting that the Mannequin Y manufacturing strains at Giga Texas are at present down, and have been for over every week. This was a deliberate outage for upkeep and upgrades, however possibly Tesla bumped into some points?
Why do you assume the Mannequin Y AWD was eliminated? Tell us within the feedback beneath.